Browsing by Author "Wei, Chong-Lun"

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Hydrogen-bonded effects on supramolecular blue phase liquid crystal dimeric complexes
(2015-01-01)
Wei, Chong-Lun
;
Chen, Te-Cheng
;
Raghunath, Putikam
;
Lin, Ming-Chang
;
Lin, Hong-Cheu
In this study, a series of novel asymmetric hydrogen-bonded (H-bonded) dimeric complexes D/P and D/P* (proton donors D = A, A*, AF and AF*) were synthesized and self-assembled by appropriate molar ratios of H-donors (A, A*, AF and AF*) and H-acceptors (P and P*). In addition, the influences of the lateral fluoro-substituent of H-donors, the number (along with the position) of chiral centers and the molar ratio of H-donors and H-acceptors on the mesophasic behaviours (e.g., BPs) of asymmetric H-bonded dimeric complexes are investigated. Interestingly, the blue phase (i.e., BPI) was observed in complexes A*/P, A*/P*, AF*/P and AF*/P* containing at least a chiral center in H-donors (A* and AF*), including the widest BPI ranges of complexes AF*/P* (ca. 6 degrees C and 13 degrees C for 1 : 1 and 3 : 1 mol, respectively). For the first time, the hydrogen-bonded effects on supramolecular blue phase LCs are compared with their analogous covalent diads. Based on our theoretical calculation, we discovered that the bend angle plays an important role in manipulating the existence of the blue phase, which is preferred to appear at the bend angle within 132.1-152.9 degrees. Hence, owing to inappropriate bend angles, both H-bonded dimeric complex A/P* and covalent diad A*-P (with bend angles of 162.0 degrees and 126.5 degrees, respectively) did not possess any blue phase.
Novel asymmetrical single- and double-chiral liquid crystal diads with wide blue phase ranges
(2015-01-01)
Wei, Chong-Lun
;
Chen, Te-Cheng
;
Raghunath, Putikam
;
Lin, Ming-Chang
;
Lin, Hong-Cheu
In this study, two series of novel asymmetrical single- and double-chiral liquid crystal diads using a central linker to link two different mesogenic cores were successfully synthesized. The effects of the position of chiral centers and the number of aromatic rings on the mesomorphic and electro-optical properties were investigated. We found that diads III-N (where N = A, B, C and D) have better mesophasic properties than II-N (where N = A, B, C, D and E). Compared with III-C with a chiral center at the terminal alkoxyl chain, diad III-D exhibited the widest temperature range of BPI (ca. 31 degrees C) as the chiral center was introduced to the central linker. Besides III-D, BPs were also observed in diads II-B and III-B with a chiral center at the central spacer. According to our experimental results and molecular modeling, the mesomorphic properties and temperature ranges of BPs will be affected by the values of biaxiality and dipole moment, along with the bent shape of molecular geometry. Therefore, we demonstrated the first example of asymmetrical single- and double-chiral liquid crystal diads involved chiral centers located at the central linker to exhibit BPs, including the mesophases of BPI and BPIII, which might offer new BP single-components to the future applications of eutectic liquid crystal mixtures with wide BP ranges.
Synthesis and study of hybrid hydrogen-bonded bent-core liquid crystal complexes containing C-60- and Si-based proton donors
(2015-01-01)
Liu, Shih-Hsien
;
Yang, Po-Jen
;
Wei, Chong-Lun
;
Chiang, I. -Hung
;
Liao, Chun-Yen
Novel hydrogen-bonded (H-bonded) C-60- and Si-based bent-core liquid crystal (LC) complexes containing a bent-shaped proton acceptor and C-60- and Si-based single/double armed proton donors were synthesized and mixed to produce hybrid H-bonded LC complexes. The SmCP phases could be introduced in the hybrid LC complexes with a very high C-60-based moiety up to 90 mol%. Among our H-bonded LC complexes, the hybrid LC complexes with low amounts of the C-60-based moiety (<= 24 mol%) possessed the highest spontaneous polarization value (ca. 494 nC cm(-2)), the widest mesophasic range (40.8 degrees C) and the lowest saturated electric field (8.8 V-pp mu m(-1)). Under electric fields of modified triangle waveforms, both series of hybrid H-bonded LC complexes displayed an anti-ferroelectric (AF) to a ferroelectric (FE) polar switching as the C-60-based moiety increased up to 24-50 mol%. Therefore, the hybrid H-bonded LC complexes containing a broad molar ratio (0-90 mol%) of C-60-based moiety revealed a tunable route for the electro-optical applications of C-60-based H-bonded liquid crystals.
The first blue phase reactive monomers containing a bi-mesogenic core and their side-chain polymers
(2015-01-01)
Wei, Chong-Lun
;
Lin, Yen-Ting
;
Chang, Jin-Huai
;
Chiang, I-Hung
;
Lin, Hong-Cheu
Two novel blue phase (BP) reactive monomers M1 and M2 containing a bi-mesogenic core are first reported by introducing two end-attached acrylic spacers with different lengths. Due to the self-assembly of bi-mesogenic cores with the same side-by-side end-attached acrylate spacers in homopolymers P1 and P2, no blue phase could be induced by homopolymerization of M1 and M2. However, by interrupting the self-assembly of bi-mesogenic cores with different side-by-side spacer lengths of copolymers P12, double-twisted cylinders of BPIII could be further extended by copolymerization of M1 and M2 with different molar ratios. With M1: M2 = 5 : 5 (molar ratio) in both side-chain copolymers P12(soln: 5/ 5) and P12(photo: 5/5) rather than binary mixture M1/M2(5/5), the widest BPIII ranges of 5.3 degrees C and 3.8 degrees C could be obtained by solution-and photo-polymerization, respectively.